400 gallon project

[untamed]

I came to realize quite late that I feeding a tank of this size with DTs was going to get a bit expensive...so, like any good addict, I decided to brew my own.

I rigged up this little baby from an empty salt pail. (in a few years, I might be able to build a garage from empty salt pails, and I'm looking for anyone who has a design to build an automobile from empty salt pails)

The light fooled my camera. It's not really this green. This device could make 6 litres per week of phytoplankton. I'm not sure how much I'll be need.


Here's the recipe I've used so far:

1 tbsp of DTs reefblend
2 L SW mixed to about 1.020
14 drops of concentrated plant food
1 ml of Kent essential elements
Continuous gentle bubbling
16 hours of light, 8 hours dark
Brew until dark

My first ever batch achieved this in 6 days. The colour of this photo is very accurate. My first brew isn't as green as I would prefer. On the final day, it began to take on a distinct red/yellow tinge. It is still very dark. It's possible that the colour is simply due to the the specific plankton that happen to multiply best from the DTs mix.


I've started another batch, using less plant food. I'm thinking that the first batch may have run out of food, so by cutting the food in half, I should see a dramatic result that will tell me what I need to do.